A wallflower gets seduction tips from a playboy athlete—until love changes the rules.

Socially awkward Joellen Bixby has a date every Saturday—with her cat, a pint of ice cream, and fantasies of the way-too-handsome Michael Maddox. She’d give anything to win over the unattainable CEO of her firm, but how can she when she blends in so well with her cubicle? The answer may be closer than she thinks.

Cameron McGregor is a cocky, tattooed Scottish rugby captain who just moved in next door. He’s not Jo’s type—at all—but the notorious playboy is offering to teach the wallflower everything he knows about inspiring desire. Though a lot of women have rumpled Cam’s kilt, Jo is special. Far from the ugly duckling she thinks she is, in Cam’s eyes she’s sharp, funny, and effortlessly sexy. Now, thanks to him, Jo is blooming with confidence and has the man of her dreams within reach.

Unfortunately for Cam, he’s just helped to push the woman of his dreams into the arms of another man—and now he’s in the fight of his life to keep this beauty from getting away.

Melt For You by J.T. Geissinger is the second book in her latest series and I fell in love with Burn For You last year. I have had this book on my Kindle ever since I read Burn For You. I am not sure why I waited so long for Melt For You to be honest. I think the set up isn’t my favorite in romance to be honest. The whole unrequited love with a mix trying to set up the person with someone else. So its something I was super excited to read however, I wanted to read this series in order and Ache For You was recently released and I want to read that one so badly so I thought since this book Melt For You received so many wonderful reviews that I would finally pick up this book and spent all afternoon yesterday reading this and I just couldn’t put it down. It was FABULOUS, I wish I could just leave this review with that and that would be it because this book satisfied me in every which way and as a plus, it’s an Ugly Duckling Fairy Tale Retelling and there aren’t that many retellings of that fairy tale so I was thrilled.

in Melt For You, our story begins with Joellen who is socially awkward but is a hard worker. She has stayed with her job for over ten years, only taking one day off when she had surgery. She has been in love with her boss, the CEO for many years but he is married, so untouchable for her. Joellen has a new neighbor who is driving her crazy with his super loud rap music, always wanting her to make him her dinner meals, her cat has betrayed her in loving him, and he is an arrogant rugby player who never has a shirt on. But when he discovers that she is in love with her boss who is getting a divorce, he begins to give her some lessons in winning her boss over but soon the lessons begin to turn into something more between them and there is sizzling chemistry whenever they touch or argue or laugh together. But this ugly duckling’s journey into turning into a swan will show that her beauty has always been there and that Cameron has admired her for who she is and not for who she has become and accepts and loves her with no conditions.

Melt For You was such a beautiful love tale and with this spin, on the “Ugly Duckling” I admired how this author wrote this story for sure. It was so delectable and I admired seeing them journey together and boy the LAUGHS. I swear this book just gave me so many happy feels and I was laughing all the way through this book because seriously their banter was so infectious. The first half of the book you just see the chemistry building up stronger with each chapter. Their interactions were addicting and I honestly just couldn’t get enough of seeing them together. But then we get some vital emotion that gets thrown in the mix. We start to see their painful pasts come into their relationship.

Our hero suffered seeing his parents make painful decisions and suffered from some traumatic memories but what we see is that Cameron was born a preemie and growing up was smaller than the other kids, but now Cameron is one of the best athletes in the world and is built like an ox with muscle on muscle, he has worked hard to eat right and work out like a beast to become stronger and not let anything or anyone hurt him again. I loved his strength, courage, and devotion to living a healthy lifestyle. And I am telling you, I wanted to just drink a green smoothie while reading this book!!

Joellen grew up in a home where her parents did love her to an extent but always looked down on her Her parents and sister always had the perfect style of bodies and Joellen didn’t quite match up to what her family looked like and they tend to put her down A LOT and it was so sad to see that in the beginning of the book Joellen believe that she is dull and fat and not that pretty and it broke my heart and I related so much to this (since I received similar treatment from my family growing up) so I really connected with Joellen and understood her so well.

People can be arseholes. Sometimes those arseholes are family. It sucks, but it doesn’t mean you have to take on their bullshit. Your mother’s BS is about her, not you. You’re perfect just the way you are, lass.

And boy Cameron doesn’t like her family after one phone call with them because he can tell how they view her and it makes him furious and I think I fell in love with him in that moment. Because Cameron sees Joellen as the gorgeous woman she is inside and out, that beauty within is more important than what is on the outside but he also sees the lovely woman she is and wants to show her how beautiful she really is and tries to get her to see that beauty despite her lack of self-esteem. Love seeing that.

Now the romance in this book is truly so endearing and love seeing them find true love together when they don’t see it coming at first. Even though Cameron is trying to get Joellen with the man she wants, throughout the story you see that Cameron is falling for Joellen and wants her to choose him and love him instead but won’t force her, he wants Joellen to want him in her life and to have that choice. He is so patient with her even if it makes him mad in how her boss treats him. Joellen at first believes that she loves Michael, but we start to see her come into herself, having more confidence in who she is, and the feelings she is beginning to have with Cameron despite his horrid taste in music. I really loved seeing the chemistry and those beautiful sensual moments when they practice kissing and boy it will set your curtains on fire because boy they have some moments of exploding passion and it just engages the reader right away. And the sex scenes….SMOKIN HOT!!! This is where we see Cameron come into his Alpha Male character because boy I love alpha’s in the bedroom and he ticked off everything I desire in a hero and he was so YUMMY I wanted to keep him for myself.

Overall Melt For You is truly one of the best romances I have ever read, its a story of growth, confidence and finding love when you least expect it…..a romantic retelling that is guaranteed to stun and delight you in every delicious way,…A BEAUTIFUL GEM OF A ROMANCE!

About J.T. Geissinger

J.T. Geissinger writes unique, passionate love stories for women who need more than cookie-cutter romance. Ranging from funny, feisty romcoms to intense, edgy suspense, her books have sold more than one million copies and been translated into several languages.

She is the recipient of the Prism Award for Best First Book, the Golden Quill Award for Best Paranormal/Urban Fantasy, and is a two-time finalist for the RITA® Award from the Romance Writers of America®. She has also been a finalist in the Booksellers’ Best, National Readers’ Choice, and Daphne du Maurier Awards.

Join her Facebook reader’s group, Geissinger’s Gang, to take part in weekly Wine Wednesday live chats and giveaways, find out more information about works in progress, have access to exclusive excerpts and contests, and get advance reader copies of her upcoming releases.